Becoming Elemental

To me, becoming elemental means recognizing my natural place in the world around me; coming into harmony with the elements—earth, water, fire, air—of our surroundings.

Mostly I feel this in my body. Vacations are good, wilderness a necessity. There’s a beach on Lake Superior in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness Area that I’ve visited many times. I’m not much of a swimmer, but I love the water. It’s shockingly cold and awakens my senses, quickens my breath, surrounds me in its velvety softness. I splash around, float and paddle like a dog, then stagger onto the shore, hugging myself as the breeze dries my skin. I throw my head back, drink it all in—the dazzle of the water, the blinding brightness of the sun, the shimmering blues and greens of sky and water, the lake-scented air, the murmur of surf, the sand burning the soles of my feet. I feel stripped: a watery, bright creature, all oxygen and iron and chlorophyll and H2O. I spread out my towel, stretch out on the sand, and let the elements lull me. There’s no hurry, nowhere else to be. I doze and dream as long as I wish, until some impulse—for shade, perhaps, or food, or adventure—rouses me.

These are special times. But the elemental life surrounds us always, everywhere. Even here in my bedroom, there is the orchid on my CD shelf, the wooden curves of my guitar, the leafy branches just outside my window, the blood and bones of my own body. I don’t need to become elemental; I only need to recognize that I already am.

-Richard Ely

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